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Happy Holidays to YES Prep teachers, families and staff

December 25, 2010 by Chris Barbic

Hope all of you are well! On behalf of all of our students and their families, I want to thank each of you for your time, energy, and effort! You are ensuring our students are receiving a top-notch college preparatory education and in the process are proving what is possible in public education. As you take the much-deserved time to rest and catch up with family and friends, please take pride in knowing that, together, we are changing kids’ lives every single day. This simply would not happen without you. . . . and I want to pass along the sincerest of thank yous to each of you!

Chris Barbic, Founder and

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A Trailer Park Elegy: YES Prep Southeast Moves into a new building

December 22, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

Today in our staff meeting, we watched a video put together by our yearbook staff. The video showed photos of our campus as it was when we moved there in 2001 and moved chronologically through just this week, as we Wizards have been packing to move into our permanent home, so long in the making. I am one of five people on the Southeast staff who was there at the start, so this move is bittersweet.

Trailer Park Elegy is a guest essay by long-time YES Prep Southeast High School English Teacher and Kinder Award Winner Leigh Anne Rayburn.

yes prep southeast student union In the summer of 2001, I had only one year of teaching under my belt. I was 27 years old and still green about so much that had to do with education. My previous year at YES had been spent in a two-acre bit of parking lot on the outskirts of

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A YES Prep Visitor Reflects on a Campus Visit

December 07, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

I have the honor of getting to meet pretty much everyone before we hire them either by interviewing them or actively recruiting them. Below is an email that I recieved from a teaching candidate that interviewed with us and then visited the YES Prep Gulfton campus. I was a really special email to get and I thought I would share it with everyone. If you are interested in visiting a campus, please let us know by sending an email to teach@yesprep.org

I wanted to let you know how my visit to the Gulfton campus went today. I honestly could not have been more impressed with the students, teachers, facility, or administration.

I was able to meet several of the teachers as well as Jake Schmitz. I was also able to sit in on Jennifer Green's 8th grade class and Hugh Guill's 9th grade

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YES Prep teachers visit a school in the UK and have profound thoughts

December 06, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

We (Explorers Lindsey Windham, Sarah Murphy, and Sarah Hampson) spoke through an intercom into a two-way mirrored office before we ushered ourselves through an automatic door and then into the front office. The inside of the office and the school’s hallway was glassy and bright, pristine and utilitarian. British hospitality meant we were granted almost immediate audience with the Academy’s vice principal, an older gentleman who assured us he had much to do but could spare a moment to tell us about his work with London students.

We found ourselves in this moment almost a week after arriving in London, England, for Thanksgiving Break. Our proximity to this local “Academy” school was due to the fact that we stayed in a quiet suburb called Putney – about 20 minutes southwest of London

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The Mohawk Challenge at YES Prep East End

December 02, 2010 by Jeremy Jones

Guest Blog from first year teacher and corps member Sean de Luna, 9th grade social studies teacher at YES Prep East End

“Daddy...you cut your hair! It’s scary. I want your old hair back,” exclaimed a shocked 3-year old daughter as I came home from work.

yes prep big goals Life isn’t fair. And I’m not talking about my hair. Social justice is what drove me to teaching. The students we teach don’t have the same academic or life opportunities as students living in areas with zip codes punctuated with dollar signs. In order to have a fighting chance at success in college, my students must to be competitive against the kind of affluent suburban students whose parents can afford to give them every opportunity AND an Audi for their 16th birthdays.